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TOPSTORIESen-caTue, 3 Mar 2015 18:20:11 ESTTue, 3 Mar 2015 18:20:11 ESTCopyright Toronto Star 1996-2013 , http://www.thestar.com/termshttp://www.thestar.com60TORONTO STARhttp://www.thestar.com/etc/designs/thestar/images/general/thestar_250x40.pnghttp://www.thestar.com/feeds.topstories.full.rss
Commons committee on anti-terror law invites testimony from retired spies, judges, Homeland Security http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/03/03/commons-committee-on-anti-terror-law-invites-testimony-from-retired-spies-judges-homeland-security.html
518253ba-aa17-463e-9b06-390c9194a2b3Tue, 3 Mar 2015 15:16:42 EST<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2015/03/03/commons-committee-on-anti-terror-law-invites-testimony-from-retired-spies-judges-homeland-security/maher-arar.jpg"><br/><p>OTTAWA&#x2014;The House of Commons committee studying the Conservatives&#x2019; controversial new anti-terror law is expected to call retired spies, former politicians and some of Bill C-51&#x2019;s harshest critics to testify. </p><p>A draft witness list obtained by the Star shows the committee will invite about 70 people to fill the 48 speaking slots on the bill.</p><p>The list includes former Supreme Court justices, lawyers and academics, as well as retired politicians. Law enforcement and security officials, both active and retired, are also expected to appear to discuss the legislation. High-ranking officials from some of Canada&#x2019;s closest security partners will also be invited to testify. </p><p>The Conservatives, who enjoy a majority on the committee, originally intended to limit testimony on the bill to just four meetings, but later conceded to eight. </p><p>The hearings will begin next Tuesday with an appearance by Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney, the sponsor of the bill, and Justice Minister Peter MacKay.</p><p>According to the committee&#x2019;s list, other potential witnesses include:</p><li><a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2010/06/14/rcmp_goes_global_with_maher_arar_torture_probe.html">Maher Arar</a>, whose rendition and torture in Syria led to a federal inquiry into Canada&#x2019;s security agencies&#x2019; cooperation with American spies.</li><li>Justice Dennis O&#x2019;Connor, the former associate chief justice of Ontario who led the Arar inquiry. </li><p><li name="online_link" class="character" displayname="online_link"><a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/01/24/chuck_strahl_quits_as_chair_of_spy_watchdog_agency.html">http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/01/24/chuck_strahl_quits_as_chair_of_spy_watchdog_agency.html </a></li>Chuck Strahl and <a href="http://www.sirc-csars.gc.ca/abtprp/ccmcma/gredeb-eng.html">Debra Grey</a>, the former and current head of CSIS&#x2019;s review committee, respectively, and former Conservative politicians.</p><li>U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.</li><li>Craig Forcese and Kent Roach, two academics who have <a href="http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/02/17/bill-c-51-moves-us-one-step-closer-to-the-end-of-privacy.html">raised serious concerns</a> about Bill C-51.</li><li>Louise Arbour, a retired Supreme Court justice.</li><li>Anne McLellan, a former Liberal cabinet minister who oversaw the implementation of Canada&#x2019;s 2001 anti-terror regime. </li><p>A number of groups representing Canada&#x2019;s Muslim population, including the Canadian Muslim Lawyers Association and the Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow, have been invited. </p><p>Under C-51, the intelligence agency would be <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/01/30/terror-bill-dramatically-increases-police-power.html">given police-like powers</a> to interrupt and &#x201c;disrupt&#x201d; threats to Canada&#x2019;s security. That covers terrorism, but also threats to Canadian &#x201c;critical infrastructure,&#x201d; the economy and diplomatic relations. </p><p>The legislation allows CSIS to take a broad range of action &#x2014; only explicitly ruling out physical harm, causing death, violating someone&#x2019;s sexual integrity, and directly subverting the law &#x2014; without any increased oversight of the spy agency&#x2019;s activities. </p><p>Currently, CSIS can only gather intelligence and pass it along to law-enforcement agencies, such as the RCMP. </p>
Alex Boutilier - Staff ReporterMaher Arar is one of about 70 people invited to speak before a committee studying the federal government's anti-terror legislation.TOM HANSONThe Canadian Press file photo<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.boutilier_alex.html">Alex Boutilier</a>Staff ReporterFederal government ignoring the real threat to national security: Walkomhttp://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/03/03/federal-government-ignoring-the-real-threat-to-national-security-walkom.html
6720f83c-18a3-4a6a-8e4b-df1a5f7cb571Tue, 3 Mar 2015 16:20:38 EST<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2015/03/03/federal-government-ignoring-the-real-threat-to-national-security-walkom/syria-drought.jpg"><br/><p>For Prime Minister Stephen Harper, national security is a top priority.</p><p>Climate change is not.</p><p>Yet as a new study suggests, the two are inexorably linked.</p><p>More specifically, the study &#x2014; published Monday in the <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</i> &#x2014; concludes that man-made climate change aggravated the four-year drought that spawned Syria&#x2019;s civil war.</p><p>That&#x2019;s the civil war, incidentally, that produced the Islamic State, a militant movement that the Conservative government calls a grievous threat to not just Canada but civilization itself.</p><p>Certainly, the Harper government is keen on national security.</p><p>It is pushing through a bill that, among other things, would give the Canadian Security Intelligence Service extraordinary authority to break the law during its pursuit of perceived villains.</p><p>In the name of fighting terror, the government has already passed laws that allow it to limit travel and strip some Canadians of their citizenship.</p><p>It has sent Canadian troops and warplanes to battle Islamic State militants in Iraq.</p><p>To woo voters for an election set to take place later this year, Harper is putting national security front and centre.</p><p>By comparison, climate change is &#x2014; for this government &#x2014; a non-issue.</p><p>Like the Liberals before them, the Conservatives have done virtually nothing to fight global warming.</p><p>In 2008, Harper painted himself as a fan of the so-called cap-and-trade method of limiting greenhouse gas emissions.</p><p>Now he derides those who would use cap-and-trade. He calls them wreckers determined to burden the population with job-killing taxes.</p><p>He always has an excuse for avoiding climate change.</p><p>When oil prices were high, he said that measures to combat global warming would harm consumers.</p><p>When oil prices fell, he said such measures were equally impossible: they might harm producers.</p><p>Harper routinely lauds Canada&#x2019;s Arctic while ignoring the fact that its melting ice cap is putting the entire region at risk.</p><p>Climate change simply isn&#x2019;t important to this government. It calculates, perhaps correctly, that the voters don&#x2019;t care.</p><p>But now that climate has been linked to terrorism, this calculus might change.</p><p>As the Star&#x2019;s <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/03/02/how-climate-change-brought-syria-to-the-brink-of-chaos.html">Ravenna Aulakh has reported</a>, the authors of Monday&#x2019;s study are exquisitely cautious in their findings.</p><p>They begin from the premise that Syria&#x2019;s four-year drought, the worst in the country&#x2019;s recorded history, contributed to the uprising against President Bashar Assad.</p><p>That point has been made before. The 2007-10 drought savaged the Syrian countryside, forcing about 1.5 million people into overcrowded towns and cities.</p><p>On top of this, Syria was overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees fleeing the chaos sparked by America&#x2019;s 2003 invasion.</p><p>Assad&#x2019;s encouragement of water-intensive export crops like cotton only aggravated the problem.</p><p>But what caused the drought? Here&#x2019;s where this study breaks new ground. It concludes that human-inspired climate change increased the probability of Syria suffering a cataclysmic drought by a factor of 200 to 300 per cent.</p><p>In other words, the country might have experienced a dry spell anyway. But human activity, by warming the Eastern Mediterranean, ensured that any drought which did occur would be significantly worse.</p><p>Wisely, the study&#x2019;s authors don&#x2019;t conclude that the Islamic State is the inevitable result of global warming. They recognize that while climate change might aggravate political conflict, it is impossible to predict which forces will emerge from the chaos.</p><p>Still, for those of us who are interested in figuring out why things happen, the findings are instructive.</p><p>We already know that dangerous, armed groups thrive in times of crisis. We know that natural disasters such as droughts can aggravate or cause such crises. And now we have evidence that human-inspired climate change contributes to natural disasters.</p><p>If Canada&#x2019;s politicians really want to make the world more secure, they may want to think about this. They may want to focus not only on anti-terror bills. They may want to look beyond misguided teenagers and malevolent websites.</p><p>They may also want to address a far more pernicious enemy, one that can turn countries upside-down. Climate change.</p><i><p><b>Thomas Walkom's</b> column appears Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.</p></i>
Thomas Walkom - National AffairsNow that researchers have concluded climate change aggravated a drought that led to the Syrian civil war, Canadian politicians should reconsider their approach to national security, writes Thomas Walkom.AFP/GETTY IMAGES file photo<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.walkom_thomas.html">Thomas Walkom</a>National AffairsThree arrested after girl, 14, held captive and forced into prostitutionhttp://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2015/03/03/three-arrested-after-girl-14-held-captive-and-forced-into-prostitution.html
e88ddc3a-9627-499a-9c2b-bb25e25c811eTue, 3 Mar 2015 15:47:10 EST<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/crime/2015/03/03/three-arrested-after-girl-14-held-captive-and-forced-into-prostitution/natasha-robataile.jpg"><br/><p>Three people are each facing 10 charges after they allegedly held a 14-year-old girl captive in a hotel and forced her into prostitution.</p><p></p><p>On Feb. 27, hotel security officers in the Bay St. and Dundas St. W. area responded to a noise complaint, and went to a room where they found a girl who had allegedly been confined there for a week. </p><p></p><p>The girl&#x2019;s belongings, including her cell phone, were taken from her and the phone in the hotel room was disabled, say police.</p><p></p><p>The accused allegedly advertised sexual services online and arranged for the girl to meet with clients. She was forced to perform sexual services and hand over any money she made to her captors, police said. </p><p></p><p>The same day security officers found the girl, Toronto police&#x2019;s Sex Crimes Human Trafficking Enforcement Team arrested two men and a woman. </p><p>Toronto residents Sage Finestone, 21, and Nicholas Faria, 19, as well as 18-year-old Natasha Robataille, of no fixed address, are each facing 10 charges, including forcible confinement, trafficking a person under 18, advertising another person&#x2019;s sexual services, as well as a number of other trafficking offences. </p><p>The 14-year-old girl is safe at home with her family, but police believe there may be more victims. </p><p></p><p>Anyone with information is asked to call 416-808-7400 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477). </p>
Tamara Khandaker - Staff ReporterNatasha Robataile, 18, is one of three people charged in a human trafficking investigation involving a 14-year-old girl.Toronto Police PhotoNicholas Faria, 19, faces numerous charges in a human trafficking investigation involving a 14-year-old girl.Toronto Police PhotoSage Finestone, 21, is one of three people charged in a human trafficking investigation involving a 14-year-old girl.Toronto Police Photo<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.khandaker_tamara.html">Tamara Khandaker</a>Staff ReporterBrampton councillors say delayed probe impacting city businesshttp://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/03/03/brampton-councillors-say-delayed-probe-impacting-city-business.html
05839c5a-ccc9-45cf-992a-40badd2aca40Tue, 3 Mar 2015 17:31:46 EST<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/gta/2015/03/03/brampton-councillors-say-delayed-probe-impacting-city-business/george-rust-deye.jpg"><br/><p>Waiting for a delayed Brampton investigation into possible misconduct in a $500-million development deal is hampering the city&#x2019;s ability to get important work done, some council members say.</p><p>&#x201c;I am eager to read a final report as soon as possible and move on to new initiatives like two-way, all-day GO rail service,&#x201d; Mayor Linda Jeffrey said in an email Monday, responding to questions about the probe of Brampton&#x2019;s downtown redevelopment project.</p><p>Other important files councillors said are waiting to be addressed include the proposed LRT route through the city centre and a badly needed first university for Brampton. </p><p>The investigation into how the downtown redevelopment deal was procured and whether or not staff misled councillors about it was called at the end of the previous council term in September, prior to the fall municipal election. </p><p>That decision was made after the release of court documents in a lawsuit against the city by a developer who claims he was unfairly disqualified from the bidding. Council members, after reading the court documents, including testimony from a senior Brampton bureaucrat, felt they needed their own answers about how the procurement was handled. </p><p>George Rust-D&#x2019;Eye, a Toronto-based municipal lawyer, was hired to conduct the investigation on the recommendation of staff, following a Sept. 10 council meeting. Rust-D&#x2019;Eye had anticipated having the report done by the end of 2014, but in a letter to council he said the &#x201c;unforeseen quantity and volume of additional relevant material and information&#x201d; meant the report would not be ready until at least the end of January. The report has yet to be finished.</p><p>The staff report to council in September that recommended Rust-D&#x2019;Eye for the job included no tendering process, had no timeline for the final report, and no budget. </p><p>&#x201c;I think it is unusual to enter into an agreement for a review without a sense of the cost or the timelines,&#x201d; Jeffrey stated.</p><p>On Monday, a city spokesperson said a &#x201c;purchase order&#x201d; for $167,000 was opened in September for the job. But no such figure was included in the September report to council. For work up to the end of January, the city has been billed $179,410 by Rust-D&#x2019;Eye. </p><p>The city did not provide a date for when the investigation would be completed, but said an update is expected from Rust-D&#x2019;Eye later this week.</p><p>&#x201c;It was clearly outlined that the investigation was expected to take four months to complete,&#x201d; the city stated in its response.</p><p>Rust-D&#x2019;Eye did not respond to questions.</p><p>&#x201c;None of the allegations have been proven, but how is council supposed to work with staff that might have blatantly misled us?&#x201d; Councillor John Sprovieri said. &#x201c;I have an issue dealing with the senior staff involved in these allegations on any issue. There is a barrier. I can&#x2019;t help having this feeling.&#x201d;</p><p>Councillor Grant Gibson also said the probe needs to be completed so council can move on. </p><p>&#x201c;I hope that this report has some meat on it,&#x201d; he said.</p><p>Gibson wants to know why the delays have occurred, when the report is coming and why the cost has ballooned. &#x201c;I&#x2019;m going to ask that this be put on the (council meeting) agenda for Wednesday.&#x201d;</p><p></p><p></p>
San Grewal - Urban Affairs ReporterLawyer George Rust-D'Eye was hired to look behind the scenes at a controversial development deal in Brampton.ANDREW WALLACETORONTO STAR<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.grewal_san.html">San Grewal</a>Urban Affairs ReporterThe subtle reshaping of Tom Mulcair and Justin Trudeau: Tim Harperhttp://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/03/03/the-subtle-reshaping-of-tom-mulcair-and-justin-trudeau-tim-harper.html
a470f2a8-a5a4-4406-83f0-259d1a3570d2Tue, 3 Mar 2015 17:15:46 EST<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2015/03/03/the-subtle-reshaping-of-tom-mulcair-and-justin-trudeau-tim-harper/thomas-mulcair-and-wife.jpg"><br/><p>It&#x2019;s an election year and that means last year&#x2019;s versions of the two men who are bent on unseating Stephen Harper&#x2019;s Conservatives are gone.</p><p>The 2015 versions of NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau are different in both style and message.</p><p>Some of the changes are subtle &#x2014; a little tweaking there, a little buffing there &#x2014; but make no mistake, both men are marketing themselves differently to voters in the early part of this year.</p><p>Trudeau is striving to look more like a prime minister-in-waiting, showing more discipline in his message and eliminating a penchant for ill-conceived comments that made him an attractive target for political opponents.</p><p>Mulcair has to tell voters who he is. He remains a blank slate to too many voters.</p><p>Trudeau is still making himself accessible to the media, but he is limiting questions in Ottawa for the first time, his answers are tighter and he is desperately trying to stay on message.</p><p>Gone is the propensity for filling dead air he demonstrated early in his tenure as leader.</p><p>He now prefers to meet reporters on Wednesdays after caucus in a media studio, a backdrop that lends him an air of gravitas, gives him a lectern and allows him to use flags for a television backdrop.</p><p>It gives him more control than the often chaotic questioning he deals with outside the caucus room.</p><p>But Trudeau on a leash is not the same freewheeling politician who spent so much time atop the polls and it is an open question as to whether voters will warm to the toned-down Trudeau who sounds more like a message track politician with each passing day. </p><p>It eliminates the shoot-from-the-lip lines that have caused him so much trouble, but Liberal strategists once liked to describe him as a homerun hitter, a guy who could swat the ball out of the park but would strike out from time to time.</p><p>To continue the baseball analogy in 2015, Trudeau now has better plate discipline, and he doesn&#x2019;t swing at questions out of his strike zone.</p><p>But the jury&#x2019;s out. He has had some difficulty &#x2014; including a tough interview on <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.2973643/trudeau-on-why-he-s-pushing-for-physician-assisted-dying-1.2974511">As It Happens</a>CBC&#x2019;s <i>As It Happens</i> in which host Carol Off suggested Canadians didn&#x2019;t know what he stood for and Trudeau said people should read his book.</p><p>A couple of days later in an interview with Robert Fife on <a href="http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/trudeau-opens-door-to-supporting-iraq-mission-extension-1.2258859">, Trudeau</a>CTV&#x2019;s <i>Question Period</i>, Trudeau just seemed flat.</p><p>The selling of Mulcair has undergone a more radical overhaul.</p><p>There is a sense among many New Democrats that an opportunity to market the leader as a new brand in Canadian politics was squandered when he became leader in 2012.</p><p>He was swamped when Trudeau won the Liberal leadership and became the flavour of the month.</p><p>Mulcair has brought some veterans from the Jack Layton days back into his inner circle and the change is noticeable.</p><p>The party did extensive polling at the end of 2014 seeking voter perceptions of all three federal leaders.</p><p>It found the opposition leader did not suffer from perceived grumpiness or anger &#x2014; party insiders say that is merely a construct of the Ottawa bubble &#x2014; but from a lack of recognition from Canadian voters.</p><p>So Mulcair now sprinkles biographical information in his speeches, telling voters he is the second oldest of a family of 10, had a middle-class upbringing, that he and his family had to work hard for everything they got, that he learned to live within his means early in life.</p><p>When he talks about national security, he reminds voters that one of his sons is a police officer.</p><p>He is spending more time on the road and more time with wife Catherine Pinhas at his side because New Democrats think the presence of his spouse &#x201c;warms up&#x201d; the leader and makes him a more relaxed, approachable politician.</p><p>He speaks more often of his years in politics and his time in cabinet in Quebec. NDP polling found Trudeau&#x2019;s inexperience is his biggest liability, so Mulcair <a href="http://www.thecanadianpress.com/english/online/OnlineFullStory.aspx?filename=DOR-MNN-CP.ecab58b4307a408aaeb9f5b6cbf6774f.CPKEY2008111303&amp;newsitemid=29849775&amp;languageid=1">will now tell you</a> that prime minister is &#x201c;not an entry level position.&#x2019;&#x2019;</p><p>There is also more Mulcair on social media, Mulcair smiling at a hockey game, Mulcair smiling at the Canadian Screen Awards, Mulcair smiling with children.</p><p>We&#x2019;re often told in politics that it is folly to try to make a candidate something that he or she is not.</p><p>But this is all about marketing and likeability, warmth and credibility can move large voting chunks in what will likely be a very close election this year.</p><p><i><p>Tim Harper is a national affairs writer. His column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. <a href="mailto:tharper@thestar.ca">tharper@thestar.ca </a> Twitter:@nutgraf1</p></i></p>
Tim Harper - National AffairsThomas Mulcair is spending more time on the road and more time with wife Catherine Pinhas at his side because New Democrats think the presence of his spouse “warms up” the leader and makes him a more relaxed, approachable politician< writes Tim Harper.Chris YoungTHE CANADIAN PRESSJustin Trudeau is limiting questions in Ottawa for the first time. Gone is the propensity for filling dead. He now prefers to meet reporters on Wednesdays after caucus in a media studio, a backdrop that lends him an air of gravitas, writes Tim Harper.Sean KilpatrickTHE CANADIAN PRESS file photo<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.harper_tim.html">Tim Harper</a>National AffairsDisney vacation turns to nightmare for Mississauga family http://www.thestar.com/news/immigration/2015/03/03/disney-vacation-turns-to-nightmare-for-mississauga-family.html
2439b455-5d10-4e0b-9ccb-cd18f528814dTue, 3 Mar 2015 17:04:00 EST<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/immigration/2015/03/03/disney-vacation-turns-to-nightmare-for-mississauga-family/firas-al-rawi-and-family.jpg"><br/><p>A Mississauga family says a dream trip to Disney World in February turned into a nightmare after they were held by U.S. customs at Pearson airport, denied entry and paraded in public before returning home.</p><p>Firas Al-Rawi, an emergency room doctor at Toronto General Hospital, said he booked the Family Day holiday trip in early December so his wife and children could join him at a professional conference in Orlando that week. The family had taken numerous trips to the United States by air and car without incident.</p><p>&#x201c;My kids were so excited, and they were counting down the days for the trip,&#x201d; said Al-Rawi, 48, an Iraqi who immigrated to Canada with his family in 2006 via Qatar, where he and his wife, Asmaa Ahmed, both worked as physicians. They and their children are all citizens who hold Canadian passports.</p><p>The Al-Rawis became part of the 330 or more travellers a day who are refused entry to the United States under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, which gives border officials the right to refuse admission of non-Americans &#x2014; including Canadian citizens.</p><p>According to the National Council of Canadian Muslims, 14 per cent of the 182 human rights complaints it received between 2011 and 2013 involved travel restrictions to the U.S.</p><p>On Feb. 13, the family arrived at Pearson International Airport three hours ahead of their 5 p.m. flight. After being fingerprinted and photographed at the check-in counter, Al-Rawi said, they were asked to go for a secondary inspection.</p><p>As his family waited in a public area, Al-Rawi said he was questioned about the purpose of his visit, his employment and his family trips in 2014 to Qatar and Dubai.</p><p>&#x201c;We didn&#x2019;t really mind if it was a random check, given the typical screening with what&#x2019;s happening with ISIS (the terrorist Islamic State group). We had nothing to hide,&#x201d; he said. &#x201c;But we were not prepared for the rest of it. We were stressed, not knowing what was going on.&#x201d;</p><p>After a 10-minute interview, Al-Rawi said he and his family were fingerprinted and photographed again before uniformed officers came to inspect their suitcases.</p><p>During the inspection, the family said, their electronics &#x2014; one iPhone, two MacBooks and three iPads &#x2014; were confiscated, and they were ordered to provide passwords so officials could unlock the devices.</p><p>&#x201c;We have uncovered photos we took in our private lives in there,&#x201d; Ahmed, Al-Rawi&#x2019;s wife, said of the digital family photos on the devices, where she and her daughter, Zainab, appeared without their headscarves. </p><p>A customs supervisor later told the family they were being denied entry to the U.S. and asked them to sign papers to declare they were withdrawing their applications for admission, he said. Al-Rawi refused and asked for a reason.</p><p>&#x201c;He said, &#x2018;You are not going to your trip because we have doubts if you are going to return to Canada after the trip,&#x2019;&#x201d; said Al-Rawi, who spent more than five years working to earn an Ontario medical licence and restart his stalled practice in Canada.</p><p>United States Customs and Border Protection refused to comment on the Al-Rawi incident, but said travellers are responsible for proving their innocence.</p><p>On a typical day, the agency said, it processes 992,000 admission applications to the U.S., refuses 366 persons as inadmissible and arrests 22 wanted criminals at the ports of entry.</p><p>&#x201c;Applicants for admission bear the burden of proof to establish that they are clearly eligible to enter the United States. In order to demonstrate that they are admissible, the must overcome all grounds of inadmissibility,&#x201d; said Jennifer Evanitsky, a spokesperson for the USCBP.</p><p>Those grounds, she said, include health, criminality, security, labour certification, illegal entrants, immigration violations and documentation requirements.</p><p>Banned travellers, she said, may apply for a temporary waiver, but &#x201c;the process can be lengthy and there is a cost per application regardless of the decision.&#x201d;</p><p>Al-Rawi said American officials have yet to return the seized electronics and the family is concerned about the implications of this action for future travels; their passports now carry U.S. stamps showing that they withdrew their admission applications to the U.S., which is equivalent to the person being denied entry.</p><p>Lawyer Khalid Elgazzar, vice chair of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said being barred from entry to the U.S. can affect a person&#x2019;s ability to fulfill work obligations, not to mention the stigma that&#x2019;s created among colleagues and friends.</p><p>&#x201c;There is a sense that these secondary screenings are not random,&#x201d; said Elgazzar. &#x201c;Canadians do not have any rights in the U.S. There is no access to information. There&#x2019;s no redress mechanism and little you can do.&#x201d;</p><p>The council plans to do a survey investigating the Muslim community&#x2019;s experience with travel and mobility, as well as a spring forum to address the impact of the post-9/11 period on civil liberties.</p>
Nicholas Keung - Immigration reporterPhysician Firas Al-Rawi and his wife and children, all Canadian citizens, were shocked and humiliated by their treatment at the airport on the way to a long-anticipated visit to Disney World over the Family Day week. They still haven't got their confiscated electronics back.NICHOLAS KEUNGTORONTO STAR<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.keung_nicholas.html">Nicholas Keung</a>Immigration reporterGender-neutral clothing goes mainstream with new department store campaignhttp://www.thestar.com/business/2015/03/03/gender-neutral-clothing-goes-mainstream-with-new-department-store-campaign.html
d48e442d-2235-4e4e-8b88-ce8e80755097Tue, 3 Mar 2015 17:09:43 EST<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/business/2015/03/03/gender-neutral-clothing-goes-mainstream-with-new-department-store-campaign/rad-hourani-14-look03-hijpg.jpg"><br/><p>Gender-neutral fashions have popped up on the runways of Paris and in the shops of Toronto in recent years, but a new shopping experience at a major London department store suggests unisex fashions may be entering mainstream consciousness.</p><p>Starting in mid-March, the flagship Selfridges store &#x2013; a British chain owned by Canada&#x2019;s Galen Weston since 2003 &#x2013; will feature non-gender-specific fashion collections in a concept space spanning three floors. </p><p>&#x201c;Moving away from the tradition of a societal and sartorial binary gender definition, we will take our customers on a journey where they can choose to shop and dress without limitations or stereotypes,&#x201d; <a href="http://www.selfridges.com/content/article/coming-soon-agender">reads Selfridges&#x2019; announcement of &#x2018;Agender.</a>&#x2019;</p><p>One of the designers featured among the collections is Canadian Rad Hourani, whose eye-catching unisex fashions have <a href="http://www.thestar.com/life/fashion_style/2013/01/24/rad_houranis_unisex_ultramodern_design_marks_a_new_age_for_haute_couture.html">turned heads in the world of haute couture</a>. </p><p>Ben Barry, a fashion researcher and assistant professor at Ryerson University&#x2019;s school of fashion, says Selfridges&#x2019; new campaign suggests they&#x2019;ve noticed a change in how consumers see gender, amid broader cultural shifts like the social and political acceptance of the LGBTTQ2 communities and the rise of anti-bullying campaigns.</p><p>The gender-bending fashion movement is nothing new, Barry adds. From 1980s club goers to queer performance artists, people have long subverted gender norms through fashion. In cinema, <i>Annie Hall</i>&#x2019;s slacks-wearing titular character became the poster child for androgyny; in music, David Bowie blurred gender lines as the sexually-ambiguous Ziggy Stardust. </p><p>&#x201c;What <i>is</i> new is this is no longer limited to a sub-cultural movement, but it&#x2019;s hit mainstream society,&#x201d; Barry says. </p><p>Fashionistas as diverse as Vivienne Westwood (the controversial British designer) and Kanye West (the rapper-turned-Adidas-collaborator) have debuted unisex lines in recent years. And, for retailers, there&#x2019;s a growing business case for unisex clothing, says Barry.</p><p>Natalia Manzocco, who operates Toronto-based gender-neutral vintage store <a href="http://www.futureisthefuture.com/">Future is the Future</a>, says there&#x2019;s definitely a demand for unisex apparel. &#x201c;I&#x2019;ve received emails of support from as far away as Portland,&#x201d; she says. </p><p>The online outlet, opened last year, is now <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/638543169605208">launching a pop-up shop</a> on Mar. 5 at Elephant in the Attic on Dundas Street West. </p><p>It&#x2019;s not the only gender-neutral store in Toronto, either: <a href="http://www.muttonheadstore.com/">Muttonhead</a>, a locally-designed unisex fashion line, launched back in 2009. &#x201c;We began putting out unisex designs when we found there was a rather large gap in the market when it came to non-feminine casual and sportswear for women,&#x201d; says designer Melanie Sinclair.</p><p>Manzocco acknowledges the practical reasons why traditional men&#x2019;s and women&#x2019;s clothing sections exist. &#x201c;That&#x2019;s the way the majority of the world sees themselves. Bodies are built that way,&#x201d; she says. </p><p>&#x201c;But lots don&#x2019;t identify with one gender or another &#x2013; or clothing meant for the gender they identify with doesn&#x2019;t fit &#x2013; or they want to buy something from the other side of the store without clothing associates telling them they&#x2019;re on the wrong side.&#x201d;</p><p>Traditional gender-based sizing may pose a challenge for unisex retailers, Barry says, but he adds that a greater embrace of gender-neutral clothing offers an opportunity for fashion retailers to reinvent this aspect of production. </p><p>&#x201c;I think from a business perspective, reinventing sizing is critical. The biggest reason consumers are dissatisfied and return clothing is because of fit,&#x201d; he explains.</p><p>So is gender-neutral a retail trend that will continue? Barry thinks so, but adds consumers aren&#x2019;t looking to do away with gender entirely.</p><p>&#x201c;&#x2018;Agender&#x2019; doesn&#x2019;t mean genderless,&#x201d; he says. &#x201c;I think stripping away gender is really boring &#x2013; then everyone looks the same. Gender is really fun, and I think it&#x2019;s what makes fashion fun.&#x201d;</p>
Lauren Pelley - Staff ReporterThe unisex made-to-order fashions of Canadian designer Rad Hourani will be among those offered in 'Agender,' a new gender-neutral campaign at Selfridges' flagship store in London.Rad Hourani<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.pelley_lauren.html">Lauren Pelley</a>Staff ReporterTen carriers enter auction for wireless spectrum http://www.thestar.com/business/tech_news/2015/03/03/ten-carriers-enter-auction-for-wireless-spectrum.html
50993e5c-bc69-496c-9314-31ea61837169Tue, 3 Mar 2015 15:47:46 EST<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/business/tech_news/2015/03/03/ten-carriers-enter-auction-for-wireless-spectrum/moore.jpg"><br/><p>Industry Minister James Moore says results of the federal government&#x2019;s latest auction of wireless airwave licenses will be unveiled Friday.</p><p>Ten cellular service carriers submitted their bids for the so-called AWS-3 long wave spectrum by the midday Tuesday deadline in the first of two contests Ottawa has scheduled for this year. </p><p>Another block of the &#x201c;invisible infrastructure&#x201d; that transmit wireless information is to be sold off in April</p><p>Ottawa controls the public resource and has made more available to support cellular telecom and broadband services. The Harper government is also keen to promote four national wireless carriers in each province in a market still dominated by incumbents.</p><p>Moore in a statement reiterated that the current auction sets aside 60 per cent of the spectrum for new competitors, defined as having less than 10 per cent of national market share. </p><p>Those include Toronto-based Wind Mobile, Quebec&#x2019;s Videotron and Mobilicity, which has been under creditor protection for more than a year. </p><p>The bidding process has been streamlined and Moore said there will be strict provisions on the transfer of spectrum to keep proceeds out of the hands of established providers including Bell and Rogers.</p><p>The second round of AWS bidding &#x2014; the first in 2008 led to creation of Wind and Mobilicity &#x2014; is not expected to raise as much for the government&#x2019;s general coffers as the $5.27 billion generated by last year&#x2019;s 108 round 700 MHz spectrum auction &#x2014; in part because of the constraints on spending by incumbents.</p><p>But the new spectrum will help carriers deploy the long-term evolution standard for high speed data that could lower the average cost of service. Some consumer groups worry, however, that if bidding becomes heated winners will try and pass on some of the cost to consumers.</p><p> Ottawa has said successful bidders can hold the spectrum license for 20 years and will need to deploy between 40 per cent and 60 per cent within eight years depending on where they operate.</p>
Michael Lewis - Business ReporterIndustry Minister James Moore says results of the federal government’s latest auction of wireless airwave licenses will be unveiled Friday.
CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO
<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.lewis_mike.html">Michael Lewis</a>Business ReporterLive: Snowing now, ice pellets on the way. And lots of collisions, police sayhttp://www.thestar.com/news/starweather/2015/03/snow-for-lunch-hour-ice-pellets-for-your-commute-home-toronto-weather-for-march-3-2015.html
40e82126-162d-4ce5-85f6-0b940918c27eTue, 3 Mar 2015 07:25:00 EST<p>A special weather statement for Toronto remains in effect today with Environment Canada forecasting up to 5 cm of snow and ice pellets will hit the city.</p><p>The snow began around noon with a combination of snow and ice pellets due to arrive during the afternoon rush-hour commute.</p><p>This afternoon's high will be -2 C and winds will move at 20 km/h. As the evening progresses, precipitation will dissipate to periods of drizzle. Overnight, the low is expected to stay relatively warm at -2 C and there will be a small chance of flurries.</p><p>Wednesday will see the partial cloud clearing with a small chance of flurries. The high will hover just below the freezing mark at -1 C. The temperature is forecast to drop to -16 C overnight.</p><p>Thursday and Friday are forecast to see sunny skies with daytime highs of -7 C and -5 C, respectively.</p>
Nick Westoll - Staff Reporter<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.westoll_nick.html">Nick Westoll</a>Staff ReporterSuppliers put Target Canada in the hot seathttp://www.thestar.com/business/2015/03/03/suppliers-question-targets-insolvency-timing.html
f6227ace-e9f5-46a2-b477-37179dc8cc44Tue, 3 Mar 2015 13:41:06 EST<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/business/2015/03/03/suppliers-question-targets-insolvency-timing/target-closing.jpg"><br/><p>Target Canada suppliers have a long list of questions they want the insolvent retailer to answer &#x2014; 61 in all. </p><p>The questions centre around the timing of the insolvency, declared Jan. 15. Target is in the process of liquidating all 133 stores across Canada.</p><p>&#x201c;When did Target Canada and Target Corporation first begin considering closing down its Canadian stores and seeking insolvency protection,&#x201d; reads one of the questions.</p><p><a href="http://blaneystargetccaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Questions-to-Target-and-the-Monitor-Final.pdf">Complete list of questions</a></p><p>Ontario Superior Court justice Geoffrey Morawetz ruled on Feb. 19 that suppliers had until Mar. 2 to provide questions to the insolvency monitor and Target Canada (TCC).</p><p>The scope of the questions was confined to issues related to goods shipped in the 30 days before the insolvency was declared; inventory orders while creditor protection was being considered, and issues related to the timing of the discussions and decision to seek creditor protection.</p><p>The questions must be answered by Mar. 16. TCC can also refuse to answer, providing reasons why.</p><p>&#x201c;We received this document late yesterday and are in the process of reviewing it,&#x201d; according to Target spokesperson Molly Snyder. </p><p>&#x201c;I would point back to the fact that Target Corporation&#x2019;s board of directors met and voted to file for CCAA (creditor protection) on the afternoon of Jan. 14, 2015. The company announced the decision in the early morning hours of Jan. 15.&#x201d;</p><p>Among other things, suppliers are asking for the minutes of board of director meetings for Target Canada and Target Corporation between September, 2014 and January, 2015.</p><p>&#x201c;We want to see whether, when they ordered these goods, did they know they would be seeking the court&#x2019;s protection under the CCAA (Companies&#x2019; Creditors Arrangement Act) and be unable to pay for the goods,&#x201d; said Lou Brzezinski, a lawyer at Blaney McMurtry LLP.</p><p>Brzezinski represents five suppliers owed approximately $10 million. </p><p>&#x201c;They didn&#x2019;t wind down and tell suppliers they were going out of business, they increased the amount of inventory over what they would have ordered, bulking up at the expense of the suppliers,&#x201d; said Brzezinski.</p><p>He points to the fact that Target inventory on Dec. 15 was $623.1million and a month later, after the busiest season of the year, it was $526.6 million.</p><p>&#x201c;Tons of new stuff was ordered in those 30 days. I have clients who received purchase orders for tens of thousands of dollars on Jan. 7,&#x201d; said Brzezinski.</p><p>Blaney McMurtry was given the task of collecting questions from suppliers. </p><p>&#x201c;Several suppliers have indicated that Target Canada purchased more than twice the average inventory volume between Dec. 15, 2014 and Jan. 15, 2015. What is your explanation for the significant increase in inventory orders during the 30-day period preceding the (insolvency),&#x201d; reads one the questions submitted by suppliers. </p><p>&#x201c;We have received concerns from several suppliers that the debt outlined in the revised creditors&#x2019; list, dated January 15, 2015, grossly underestimates the actual balance owed to creditors,&#x201d; reads the short preamble to another question.</p><p>&#x201c;Why were some vendors paid by cheque in the 30 days prior to the filing, despite having been previously paid by alternate methods, such as Electronic Funds Transfer,&#x201d; reads another. </p><p>&#x201c;When did Target Canada first advise its banks that it would not be honouring suppliers&#x2019; cheques?&#x201d;</p><p>Another concern, according Blaney McMurtry LLP, which is maintaining a blog on the court process, is that TCC subleased its properties to a related company called Target Canada Property LLC (Target Propco).</p><p>TCC is now claiming to owe that company $1.9-billion as a result of terminating the leases early.</p><p>&#x201c;The dilemma that faces the suppliers, of course, is that a $1.9 billion inter-company claim is now added to the liabilities of Target Canada, which essentially swamps the suppliers&#x2019; claims totaling approximately $400 million,&#x201d; <a href="http://blaneystargetccaa.com/updates/">according to the Blaney company blog</a>.</p><p>&#x201c;Now, more than a month after the Initial Order, the creditor landscape shifts significantly so that this inter-company debt is the primary, and by far the largest, debt.</p><p>&#x201c;Of course, this would mean that the sale of the proceeds of inventory will now be used to repay primarily Target Propco on its inter-company debt.&#x201d;</p><p>Blaney is trying to get as many suppliers as possible to join a committee of suppliers to increase their influence.</p><p>In New York yesterday, Target&#x2019;s Chief Executive Officer Brian Cornell laid out plans to improve the retailer&#x2019;s merchandise and trim costs through job cuts.</p><p>He also forecast profit for the current year that beat most analysts&#x2019; estimates. Profit per share in the year through January will be $4.45 (U.S.) to $4.65, he told a presentation to Wall Street analysts. </p><p>Cornell is refocusing Target on key categories of merchandise to win back customers.</p><p>&#x201c;We&#x2019;re in the early stages of a shift in our business,&#x201d; Cornell said in the presentation, his first major address to Wall Street. </p><p>To boost sales, special attention will be paid to improving Target&#x2019;s baby, kids, wellness and grocery sections, Cornell said. The grocery revamp will entail improving assortments of granola, yogurt, candy, snacks, coffee and craft beers. Target also will accelerate the opening of smaller-format locations to cater to city-dwellers.</p><p></p><p><b>More on thestar.com</b></p><p><a href="http://on.thestar.com/1BE3kou">Target Canada employees granted representation by court</a></p><p><a href="http://on.thestar.com/1BRqXvt">What to expect in a liquidation</a></p><p><a href="http://on.thestar.com/1zVP2Lx">Canadian pharmacists fighting Target Canada</a></p><i><p>With files from The Star&#x2019;s wire services</p></i>
Francine Kopun - Business reporterA basic question raised in the suppliers' list of questions is whether the company stocked up stores with inventory it is now selling to pay debt to a Target-controlled entity, Target Canada Property LLC (Target Propco), whose claim swamps the supplers' own.<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.kopun_francine.html">Francine Kopun</a>Business reporterCourt to total Samsung’s costs for using Apple’s iPhone featureshttp://www.thestar.com/business/2015/03/03/court-to-total-samsungs-costs-for-using-apples-iphone-features.html
4e131c4a-65bc-4c7b-ac57-b9422bbc0856Tue, 3 Mar 2015 17:12:15 EST<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/business/2015/03/03/court-to-total-samsungs-costs-for-using-apples-iphone-features/iphone.jpg"><br/><p>WASHINGTON&#x2014;Samsung Electronics Co. is about to find out just how costly its four-year patent fight with Apple Inc. has been.</p><p>Each side spent hundreds of millions of dollars in legal bills to answer this fundamental issue &#x2014; what&#x2019;s the value of a single feature in a smartphone or tablet and is it greater if the inventor has a reputation for being cool?</p><p>That&#x2019;s the crux of arguments to be made Wednesday when the top U.S. patent court in Washington hears an appeal in one of two remaining cases in the &#x201c;smartphone war&#x201d; between the companies that at one point spanned four continents.</p><p>Apple wants Samsung to remove features from its mobile phones that copy its inventions, such as slide-to-unlock, which the iPhone maker patented as a way to unlock a touchscreen device. Samsung says it&#x2019;s too onerous to change its phones for only minor contributions. The result will likely determine how much Samsung must pay.</p><p>&#x201c;Whoever prevails on this is going to have more leverage than the other party,&#x201d; said David Long, a patent lawyer with Kelley Drye in Washington who has been following the case. &#x201c;In wars and rumors of war, they ultimately settle and it&#x2019;s all about leverage.&#x201d;</p><p>The case has broader implications on how patents for individual features are valued in complex devices. The case has split the technology community. Companies often targeted in patent claims such as Google Inc., HTC Corp., LG Electronics Inc., Rackspace Hosting Inc., Red Hat Inc. and SAP SE are siding with Samsung. Ericsson AB and Nokia Oyj, companies that rely on patent licensing for revenue, are backing Apple.</p><p>The two smartphone giants filed dozens of lawsuits against each other across four continents with little to show for it before deciding last year to drop everything except two cases originally lodged in northern California.</p><p>A $930 million judgment won by Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple over Samsung&#x2019;s use of its unique designs was argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in December. In the second case, a jury awarded Apple $120 million (U.S.). The damage award and underlying infringement finding in that case will be argued later.</p><p>The arguments Wednesday before three Federal Circuit judges focus on whether a judge should have issued an order, called an injunction, for Samsung to remove some unique Apple features that the second jury said were copied. They are Apple&#x2019;s slide-to-unlock and autocorrect techniques, and a feature that detects if a phone or address is in an e-mail and gives the user the option of making a call, finding directions or adding it to the contacts list.</p><p>Samsung argued &#x2014; and the trial judge agreed &#x2014; that the individual features weren&#x2019;t driving sales of the iPhone, so Apple could be easily compensated with cash. That&#x2019;s the position the Federal Circuit has taken in past cases when Apple tried to halt sales of Samsung phones.</p><p>A ruling for Apple &#x201c;threatens to unfairly sow fear, uncertainty, and doubt about the product in the marketplace; to hinder competition; and to grant overprotection to patents,&#x201d; Samsung said in a filing with the court.</p><p>Apple said linking the injunction request to consumer demand doesn&#x2019;t apply because it wasn&#x2019;t trying to halt all sales of Samsung phones, just the use of specific features. Samsung had previously said the features were minor and would only take a few months to remove, so it&#x2019;s no hardship on the Suwon, South Korea-based manufacturer to comply with such an order, Apple contends.</p><p>Apple maintains that the court should have taken into account the potential damage to its reputation as an innovator, and how important it is to have unique features to differentiate one phone from another.</p><p>&#x201c;Apple&#x2019;s advertising showcases Apple&#x2019;s products as the &#x2018;hero&#x2019; by emphasizing their unique features &#x2014; a strategy that is much less effective when other companies offer the same features,&#x201d; Apple said in a court filing.</p><p>A decision in Apple&#x2019;s favour could create a different standard for patents owned by manufacturers and those owned by patent-licensing firms whose lawsuits have prompted both Apple and Google to push for legislative changes.</p><p>Following a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, it&#x2019;s been almost impossible for patent owners who don&#x2019;t make products to obtain injunctions; courts have said the owners can be made whole with cash. When it comes to competitors, the record is mixed.</p><p>The Federal Circuit has said that in complex devices such as a computer, smartphone, factory machines or cars, it&#x2019;s unfair to block product sales unless the infringed feature is what drives consumer demand.</p><p>The group led by Google told the court in a filing that the rules shouldn&#x2019;t change for companies like Apple. Smartphones have tens of thousands of patented inventions and a victory for Apple &#x201c;would require manufacturers to expend an inordinate amount of time and effort to design around trivial patented features,&#x201d; the group said.</p><p>Ericsson and Nokia, in separate filings, argued that the court&#x2019;s earlier standards erode property rights. A patent is a trade-off &#x2014; the invention is disclosed to the public to learn from and, in return, the patent owner has exclusive rights to the idea for a specified time period.</p><p>Proving a feature drives consumer demand shouldn&#x2019;t be required when the patent owner is claiming losses other than sales, &#x201c;such as harm caused by the loss of the ability to exercise exclusive use of the patented feature, or harm to a company&#x2019;s reputation as an innovator,&#x201d; Nokia said.</p><p>The three-judge panel hearing the case isn&#x2019;t expected to make a decision for several months.</p>
Susan Decker, BloombergAn Apple iPhone: The tech company wants Samsung to remove certain features found on its smartphones.Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty ImagesSusan DeckerBloombergKathleen Wynne pledges ‘more rational’ wine and beer saleshttp://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2015/03/03/kathleen-wynne-pledges-more-rational-wine-and-beer-sales.html
ddcbd224-2d4b-4f93-9ede-e53e74e1f0c8Tue, 3 Mar 2015 11:30:35 EST<img src="http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/queenspark/2015/03/03/kathleen-wynne-pledges-more-rational-wine-and-beer-sales/wine-rack.jpg"><br/><p>Premier Kathleen Wynne is promising a &#x201c;more rational&#x201d; system of selling wine and beer in Ontario.</p><p>One day after Wynne told Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb the province would soon have &#x201c;a lot more open&#x201d; wine market, the premier underscored that changes ahead will benefit consumers and the treasury.</p><p>&#x201c;I assured him that that&#x2019;s part of the work Ed Clark is doing,&#x201d; she said Tuesday, referring to the former TD Bank chair who&#x2019;s leading a panel reviewing the anachronistic way <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/lcbo-beer-store.html">wine and beer</a> are sold in Ontario.</p><p>&#x201c;I&#x2019;m not going to pre-empt his report. But there is an opportunity here,&#x201d; the premier said, noting Clark&#x2019;s conclusions would be part of Finance Minister Charles Sousa&#x2019;s spring budget.</p><p>&#x201c;We want these assets to work as well as possible for the people of Ontario. All of that is about finding ways to optimize these assets. Yes, to make the system more rational . . . but also to realize a funding stream, realize money that&#x2019;s going to be invested in . . . infrastructure,&#x201d; said Wynne.</p><p>&#x201c;There will be some changes coming as a result of that work. I&#x2019;m making an assumption that there are aspects of the liquor system in Ontario, the alcohol industry in Ontario, that are not as rational as they could be,&#x201d; she said.</p><p>&#x201c;If we were setting up a system today it would likely look different than it would have in 1925.&#x201d;</p><p>Richard Linley, president of the <a href="http://www.winecouncilofontario.ca/">Wine Council of Ontario</a>, said his organization is ready to work with government.</p><p>&#x201c;As an industry, we believe there are options that will create economic opportunity for both Ontario&#x2019;s <a href="http://winecountryontario.ca/wine-101/what-is-vqa">VQA wine</a> industry and the government, while improving convenience and choice for consumers,&#x201d; Linley said.</p><p>VQA wine is Vintners Quality Alliance wine, which is made entirely with Ontario grown grapes.</p><p>&#x201c;Our goal is to work with the government to ensure more VQA wine is accessible to Ontario&#x2019;s wine consumers, while boosting government revenues and complementing the role of the LCBO,&#x201d; Linley said.</p><p>Their comments came as the Star&#x2019;s <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2015/03/03/wine-rack-wine-shop-face-major-shakeup-cohn.html">Martin Regg Cohn</a> revealed the Liberal government is considering a major reorganization of how the foreign-owned Wine Rack and private Wine Shop chains operate.</p><p>That&#x2019;s over and beyond changes that appear to be on the horizon for the <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2015/02/05/beer-store-threatens-legal-action-to-protect-monopoly-cohn.html">Beer Store</a>, the private monopoly owned by the offshore parents of Labatt, Molson, and Sleeman that runs 448 outlets across the province.</p><p>The 164-outlet Wine Rack, owned by U.S.-based Constellation Brands, and the 104-outlet Wine Shop, owned by Canada&#x2019;s Andrew Peller Ltd., are exempted from the publicly owned LCBO&#x2019;s 66.5 per cent markup, instead paying a much lower tax rate of 16.1 per cent for blended wines sold on their own shelves.</p><p>But, as is required by law, the two private wine chains charge the same retail price as the LCBO, which has 639 stores, for the same products, enabling them to earn higher profits on those bottles.</p><p>That&#x2019;s one reason the Liberals are looking at reclaiming or rewriting a large portion of those wine-store licences that could then be reissued or repurposed for new alcohol retailers.</p><p>Such a move could level the vineyard playing field for smaller Ontario wineries as well as bring in more money to the treasury.</p><p>While Wynne again ruled out the sale of wine and beer in convenience stores on Tuesday she refused to speculate about supermarkets, like Loblaws, or big-box retailers, such as Costco.</p><p>&#x201c;I&#x2019;m going to wait for Ed Clark to bring his report forward. Just to be clear we had already talked about &#x2018;express stores.&#x2019; There had already been a discussion about &#x2018;express stores&#x2019; that would be attached to the LCBO in different venues so that&#x2019;s not new information,&#x201d; she said.</p><p>That&#x2019;s a reference to the LCBO express store scheme quietly iced earlier this year because bigger changes are set to be uncorked.</p>
Robert Benzie - Queen's Park Bureau ChiefThe Liberal government is considering a major reorganization of how the Wine Rack and Wine Shop chains operate that could include reclaiming or rewriting a large portion of their licences.Andrew Francis WallaceToronto Star<a rel="author" href="http://www.thestar.com/authors.benzie_rob.html">Robert Benzie</a>Queen's Park Bureau ChiefFormer deputy education minister Benjamin Levin pleads guilty to child porn charges http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2015/03/03/guilty-plea-expected-in-ben-levin-child-porn-case.html
e00d2c79-07e3-4757-9307-9a4dd226ce52Tue, 3 Mar 2015 07:45:53 EST
Diana Mehta - The Canadian Press